Today I'm hosting Rachel Brimble, author of twenty-nine novels, most recently, Victoria and Violet.
My latest book, Victoria & Violet, is the first novel in my brand-new Royal Maids series and I am super proud of it because it is the first book in which I have included real people and real events alongside the fictional. To do this has been an ambition of mine ever since my first book was published in 2007 so having achieved it feels like a very big deal.
Best of all, readers and reviewers are loving it, too!
Although Queen Victoria, Lord Melbourne, the Duchess of Kent, Lehzen and others feature in the book, the story really revolves around the lives and burgeoning romance of fictional housemaid Violet Parker and fictional assistant to Lord Melbourne, James Greene. These two characters were a joy to create, and their electricity was immediate which made a usually hard job all the easier!
Their paths have
crossed a few times before the book opens, but the interest is firmly in
James’s court (so to speak!), rather than Violet’s who has far more important
and life-changing things on her mind than romance, such as escaping the
clutches of her overbearing mother and forging a life of her own. Of course, it
is not as though Violet would ever consider James a possible suitor considering
his superior status…yet he really is most persistent!
All too soon, James and
Violet are thrown together over and over again as their roles become ever more important
to Victoria and Lord Melbourne. Amid a court that travels from the gardens of
Windsor Castle to the corridors of Buckingham Palace to the wedding of the
Queen herself, Victoria & Violet takes you on an adventure of drama,
intrigue and romance that I hope has you quickly turning the pages!
Happy reading,
Rachel x
It should be a dream come true to serve the Queen of England…
When Violet Parker is told she will be
Queen Victoria’s personal housemaid, she cannot believe her good fortune. She
finally has the chance to escape her overbearing mother, a servant to the
Duchess of Kent.
Violet hopes to explore who she is and
what the world has to offer without her mother’s schemes overshadowing her
every thought and action.
Then she meets James Greene, assistant to
the queen’s chief political adviser, Lord Melbourne. From entirely different
backgrounds and social class, Violet and James should have neither need nor
desire to speak to one another, yet through their service, their paths cross
and their lives merge—as do their feelings.
Only Victoria’s court is not always the
place for romance, but rather secrets, scandals, and conspiracies…
Rachel lives in a small town near Bath, England. She
is the author of 29 novels including the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy, the
Shop Girl series (Aria Fiction) and the Templeton Cove Stories (Harlequin). Her
latest novel, Victoria & Violet is the first book in her new Royal
Maids series with the Wild Rose Press and released 17th October
2022.
Rachel is a
member of the Romantic Novelists Association as well as the Historical Novel
Society and has thousands of social media followers all over the world.
To sign up for her newsletter (a guaranteed giveaway
every month!), click here: https://bit.ly/3zyH7dt
Website: https://bit.ly/3wH7HQs
Twitter: https://bit.ly/3AQvK0A
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3i49GZ3
I am sooo looking forward to reading this! Thank you for a great post, ladies!
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